A few Break-in fire questions

[chutes]

Hello,
Finally ready to do the break-in fires on my new Pacific Insert. There is no information in the manual on break-in fires, so I searched this forum and read through some previous threads on the topic. Granted, some responses were for different inserts, but I assume I can follow that general advice, no?

What I've learned here is that people are typically doing 3 break-in fires. One at 250 for an hour, then 300, then 400. Does that seem reasonable for the Pacific Inserts as well?

And, just so that I'm prepared ahead of time, with a 250 degree fire for one hour, am I mostly using kindling for this whole hour, or should I be prepared to throw in a split or two?

 

[chutes]

This shouldn't be posted here, but should be Hearth room. Can a moderator move it please? I had been doing my break-in fire search and was reading through a topic posted in that forum when I hit the "new topic" button. My apologies...

 

[retiredff]

I thought the same as you concerning the breaking fires. I have a Regency free standing with double wall pipe to the wall connector and use a probe thermometer. My first fire had a stack temp of 500 deg or so. My second got away from me and hit 900 deg. I posted my results and was told here 900 was too high, so I called Regency tech support and asked what temps should I run my stove at? Their reply was your stove will tell you. Their reasoning was it depends on your flue length, current outside temp, type of wood etc etc etc. They also said if the stove or pipe was not red or glowing, the stove was not over fired. They did say a temp that high for the second burn is probably not the best method, however the smell should be gone as I set off most every smoke detector in the house at 7 AM Sunday morning. That did not make the wife happy! :coolgrin:

Call your stoves tech support, after all they designed the stove.

 

[SteveT]

Your plan makes sense. But for the first fire I'd add a small amount of kindling (maybe 8 or 10 one inch pieces) and light it off. Let it go out without adding anything even if it is short burn. For the next couple of fires that will give you some idea as to what/when to add.

Hitting precise temperatures isn't critical.... you just don't want to go nuts with the first few burns.

 

[chutes]

Thanks for the responses.

I think I'll try the kindling only suggestion for fire number one.

A follow-up question: should I wait a full day to do the second and third break-ins, etc.? In other words, if I get a break-in going now, at a little after 9:00, can I do another break-in later in the day, or should I just wait and do one per day until they really get going?

 

[SteveT]

Letting it cool for a few hours after a small fire will bring it back to room temperature. No reason to wait to get going again.